When I'm in church on Sundays, and it's time to say the Lord's Prayer, I've found it increasingly difficult to begin, along with the rest of the congregation, by saying the words "Our Father." The phrase just seems too worn out and outdated as a way of addressing God. Although the church I belong to has encouraged the use of gender-inclusive language in liturgy and worship, the version of the Lord's Prayer that's printed in the church program usually begins with the words "Our Father," and the reference to God as having a male gender identity has simply become too much for me to accept. Every time I say the words "Our Father" I feel as if I'm implicitly (or perhaps explicitly) supporting patriarchy and sexism within the Christian Church.
Some of my fellow parishioners have expressed a preference for the version of the Lord's Prayer that's found in the New Zealand Prayer Book, which contains the phrase "Father and Mother of us all," and which seems more gender-inclusive. But the traditional "Our Father" version is the one we're usually called upon to recite at service each Sunday.
The use of gender-inclusive or gender-neutral language in liturgy and worship has been encouraged by a variety of Christian denominations, including the United Church of Christ, the Metropolitan Community Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church, and other denominations. However, there is still progress to be made, and there are further steps to be taken, in promoting more gender-inclusive language in the liturgy, prayer book, and call to worship.
Gender-inclusive language recognizes that all women, men, and non-binary people are equally loved and valued by God. It also encourages us to remember that God is neither male nor female, and that God transcends gender identity.
Alternatives to saying "Our Father, who art in heaven" at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer might include "Our Creator in heaven," or "Our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, who is in heaven," or "Blessed One, our Father and Mother in heaven" or "Beloved One, who dwells in heaven and on earth." Alternatives to saying "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done" (which connotes a realm ruled by a man who's king) might include "Your dominion come, Your will be done."
Changing the wording of the Lord's Prayer isn't really a radical thing to do. In 2017, Pope Francis suggested that saying "Do not let us fall into temptation" might be more appropriate than saying, "Lead us not into temptation," since God doesn't lead anyone into sin.1 SImilarly, in 2017 the French Catholic Church changed the phrase "Ne nous sommets pas à la tentation" (Do not subject us to temptation) to "Ne nous laisse pas entrer en tentation" (Do not let us enter into temptation).2
An argument I'd like to make for rewording the Lord's Prayer is that—for those who say we can't change the words of the Lord's Prayer because that would be to say something different from what's written in the Bible or that "Our Father who art in heaven" is what's written in the Bible and therefore those are the words we have to (or are supposed to) say—the ancient Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew (6:9) says that Jesus, who likely spoke in Aramaic, begins his prayer by saying "Οὕτως οὖν προσεύχεσθε ὑμεῖς" ("houtos oun proseuchesthe humeis"), which may be translated (depending on which version of the Bible you are reading) as "Pray then like this" (New Living Translation) or "Therefore pray in this manner" (King James Bible) or "Pray then in this way" (New American Standard Bible) or "This, then, is how your should pray" (New International Version). Jesus doesn't say, "Pray, using precisely these words," or "Repeat the following words," or "Pray in these words, word for word." Because he's teaching us how to pray, he tells us to pray like this, or in this way, or in this manner. This is in keeping with his other instructions on how to pray: "Don't heap up empty phrases" (Matthew 6:7), "Don't stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that you may be seen by others" (Matthew 6:5), and "Don't show off your piety in order to be seen by others" (Matthew 6:1). Because Jesus is teaching us how to pray, he wants us to pray from our hearts. He wants us to pray what's in our hearts, and not simply repeat, word for word, some lines we've memorized. He teaches us to pray to God, so that we may be forgiven for our transgressions and delivered from evil.
Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus does refer to God as "your Father" (Matthew 5:16, 6:4, 6:8, 6:15, 6:18), "your Father, who is in heaven" (Matthew 6:1), "Our Father" (Matthew 6:9), and "your heavenly Father" (Matthew 5:48, 6:14). But we shouldn't get too bound to the "Father" imagery or think of God exclusively as "Father." Jesus metaphorically refers to God as "Father," but he doesn't say this is the only way of thinking about God. God is not only our Father, but also many other things, including our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. We must therefore learn to think of God in other ways than that of thinking only of God as "Father." To strive for a gender-inclusive Lord's Prayer is to recognize that the God we pray to can't rightly be assigned a gender identity, and that God transcends gender categories.
Furthermore, the wording of the Lord's Prayer in English has evolved as the English language has evolved. "Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done" is now archaic, and has often been replaced by "Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done."
The imagery of God as "Father" is, of course, also found in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, and is so interwoven with the creeds that they would have to be extensively rewritten in order for them to become more gender-neutral or gender-inclusive. But that doesn't preclude us from making efforts to ensure that other aspects of the liturgy (such as calls to worship, prayers, scriptural readings, psalms, and hymns) are as gender-balanced or gender-inclusive as possible.
FOOTNOTES
1Julie Zauzmer and Stefano Pitrelli, "'Lead us not into' what? Pope Francis suggests changing the words of the Lord's Prayer," in The Washington Post, December 12, 2017, online at https://www.sltrib.com/religion/global/2017/12/13/lead-us-not-into-what-pope-francis-suggests-changing-the-words-of-the-lords-prayer/.
2Ibid.
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